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Thursday, 9 June 2011

Pendragon: #5 Black Water

So, i'm just going to plunge again into the world of Pendragon with book #5 Black Water. Let's see how this one goes....

Here is the summary:

Just when fifteen-year-old Bobby Pendragon thinks he understands his purpose as a Traveler -- to protect the territories of Halla from the evil Saint Dane -- he is faced with an impossible choice. The inhabitants of Eelong are in danger of being wiped out by a mysterious plague. The only way Bobby can stop it is to bring the antidote from another territory. Since moving items between territories is forbidden by the Traveler rules, if Bobby chooses to save Eelong he could endanger himself, his friends, and the future of every other being in Halla.

As the previous Pendragon saga books go by the fifth book also follows the same formula of a new territory every book and this time its Eelong. D.J. MacHale's newest addition to the Pendragon series follows Bobby Pendragon to the jungle territory of Eelong, a world where humans are slaves and intelligent jungle cats rule the land. But there is a plague that is threatening to destroy Eelong, a plague that is hauntingly familiar to Bobby and the Travelers. Bobby soon discovers, after his failure on Veelox, that Saint Dane is changing the rules, and Bobby must make a monumental choice that will either save the territory of Eelong from total devastation, or throw all of Halla into danger.

Some of the major questions that are bound to disturb the reader here - "Cats can walk, they can talk, and they keep humans as pets? What's the matter with this picture?(Kinda sound like Planet of the Apes doesn't it...with the difference of the animals that is) And since when are Mark Diamond and Courtney Chetywynde able to flume through space like their dear friend Bobby Pendragon, a fifteen year old traveler from Second Earth? Saint Dane said that the rules have changed, but have they really?"

Bobby travels to Eelong in search of the evil Saint Dane. Little does he know what to expect. Back home, on Second Earth, Bobby's closest friends, Courtney and Mark, are awaiting the long expected journal from Bobby. Instead, they receive a message from another acolyte saying they need to go the flume on Second Earth. There, Mark accidentally activates the flume and Saint Dane appears before their very eyes. He tells Mark and Courtney that the rules have changed, leaving them with a small gift. After that experience Mark and Courtney do not know what to do and then all of a sudden, Bobby appears, frantically yelling and asking them what happened.

When he returns to Eelong, the soon to be acolyte Boon is awaiting his return. Things are bad on Eelong, and sadly Bobby has no idea what Saint Dane's plans are for this strange planet. Boon takes Bobby to the city of Leeandra, "a city built in the air. Wooden huts of all sizes doting the sides of the trees, and busy sky bridges everywhere. The structures were high overhead and down low, with the lowest buildings only about twenty yards off the ground. The city was big. It all looked to be manufactured out of natural material. Wood, bamboo and woven vines. Nothing metal or plastic..."

That is how Bobby describes the beautiful Klee city of Leeandra. But what's a Klee? Klee is what the cats on Eelong are called. Humans on Eelong are called gars. What makes this book unique to all the others is that it is the first time Bobby has been to a planet where everything is flipped. Cats are superior to humans, and humans are treated like dirt. And now Saint Dane has genocide in mind. He plans on starting the process by repealing Edict Forty - Six, which states that the Klees cannot hunt the gars. Yes as i said before a kind of visualization of the 'Planet of the Apes' besides the point that it is cats who are ruling not apes.

So, Saint Dane believes that once one planet of Halla falls, they will "all tumble like dominoes." Saint Dane has Bobby thinking that this is all about Edit Forty-Six, but in all reality Saint Dane has a second agenda. Mark and Courtney decide that they MUST go to Cloral to find the traveler Spader because they believe that the same poison that was used in book number two will be used again on Eelong. Bobby thinks he has it all figured out. But that is not always the case.

MacHale is a master storyteller, deftly combining hair-raising action, fantastic adventure, edge-of-your-seat, nail-biting suspense, and a bit of romance into the most surprising and twisted Pendragon story yet. Anyone who is a fan of the series will breeze through this book, eagerly devouring every bit of information and ultimately waiting impatiently for the next jump into the flume. For those who have never read a Pendragon book before, this is a great place to introduce yourself to not one whole new world, but ten whole new worlds that will take your breath away. Mr. MacHale should be commended over and over again on such a wonderful piece of literary art.

But the bottom line still remains that this book does suffer from some of the same problems the first four in the series did--it's told in a voice that may irritate adults, and there's a feel of too much exposition at times. Also the fact that we are going to be laundered with every information that should have been present in the series since the beginning little-by-little in the last book(don't know how you all will feel but this is my opinion) That said, I was surprised at myself to see how excited I was to grab this as soon as I saw it. Problems aside, this is a great adventure series that sucks you in quickly, with entertaining characters and even more entertaining settings. Not my favourite but is a great way for killing time.

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